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Stratford Festival General Director Antoni Cimolino at the theatre in Stratford, Ont., on April 22, 2011.

Antoni Cimolino will be the next artistic director of the Stratford Shakespeare Festival.

Cimolino, a regular director at the festival who is currently its general director, will take the reins at the head of Canada's largest theatre company at the end of the upcoming 2012 season, the board of governors announced Saturday in Stratford, Ont., home to the festival.

That is an earlier transfer of power than originally expected, as current artistic director Des McAnuff will now be leaving a year ahead of schedule.

"This is a day of enormous joy for me," Cimolino, who has been the festival's senior administrator for the past 12 years, said in a release. "Today I am being asked to make a new and deeper contribution to the Stratford Festival. I'm thrilled and honoured."

Usually, a new Stratford artistic director will share a season of transition with the outgoing leader – but McAnuff said he would depart at the end of 2012 since Cimolino already has a thorough understanding of the runnings of the festival.

"Last June, when I negotiated a contract through the 2013 season, I believed that I was giving the board a suitable amount of time to conduct a search for my replacement," McAnuff said in a statement. "With the completion of the search process, it has become possible to announce the next artistic director several months earlier than I had anticipated… Rather than making him wait until 2014 to take the artistic reins, it is much more sensible for the two of us to pass the baton at the end of this, our 60th season."

The news was revealed at the Stratford Shakespeare Festival's annual general meeting, where the festival also announced a small surplus of $52,995 for the 2012 season.

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